Montana Territory, 1879

This map is a filler for information to be added about William Harvey Black's activities outside Great Falls and Fort Benton--Chouteau County and Helena.

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(After adding to this section, we can cut/paste it into another post to get the chronology right.)

More to come!

Backgound

William Harvey Black was born in----------- Pennsylvania on -------, -- 1854. In 1886 he married Selma Talbott at the home of Nate Vestal which we think was in Helena, Montana. Selma had been a school teacher in Wolf Creek and was the sister of Harriet Ellen (Hattie) Talbott, the wife of Vestal--a Montana miner/land speculator and friend and partner of Black. 

In November,1886, Black was elected sheriff of Choteau County, charged with the keeping the peace, primarily in Fort Benton, the last stop on the upper Missouri River and the conduit for relaying people and goods back and forth between the unsettled west and St. Louis.
(Betsy, you can add lots of info here.  Big gaps and errors.)
Fort Benton had been built in 1847 as a trading post for the American Fur Company.  The Blackfoot, Cree, Gros Ventres and Assiniboin provided furs and buffalo robes which were shipped downriver to eastern markets.  With the arrival of the first steamboat in 1859 and the discovery of gold in1862, Fort Benton became the world's innermost port and a building boom along the levy was underway.

By the time William Harvey Black was sheriff, Fort Benton had gone through several growth stages, and was in the throes of another--the coming of the railroad.

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Selma Talbott, Wolf Creek, Montana School Teacher

(Add some copy about Selma)

Great Falls, Montana

By 1894, William and Selma had moved to Great Falls and on July 4, Marjorie Black, their youngest child, was born.  The 1896 Great Falls phone book lists their address as 917-919 Second Avenue South. Two small homes still exist at the same address.

Fort Benton, 2010

Missouri River from the Main Street Park

Fort Union Hotel

Downtown Detail

Bridge on this site was initially built in 1884

Fort Union Hotel Dining Room

William Henry Black's Fort Benton Jail

Sheriff Black's Jail has been preserved and can be visited (and occupied) at Fort Benton's beautiful Homestead Village.